SALEM TOWNSHIP – Ottawa County’s nursing home is asking county residents on May 6 to renew a tax levy that pays for the facility’s improvement and maintenance projects.

The 0.5-mill levy would continue the amount homeowners pay to help fund projects at Riverview Healthcare Campus on Ohio 163, between Port Clinton and Oak Harbor. It would not be a new tax.

Work it would help fund includes a $49,321 drainage project the home is completing to stop flooding in its yard, erosion to its driveway and the upcoming roof replacement and painting projects, Riverview administrator Kendra German said. It also would be used continue paying off bonds from projects done in the 1990s, she said.

“It’s relatively cheap, especially in comparison to some other levies,” she said. “That’s just to keep this county-owned building up-to-date and an asset.”

If approved, the levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $15.30 annually, Ottawa County Commissioner Jo Ellen Regal said. The levy would raise $830,000 annually for five years.

Riverview is owned by Ottawa County but does not receive any money from the county’s general fund, German said.

The home’s funding comes from insurance, veterans contracts and other sources, she said.

“Lots of people don’t realize that about us,” she said. “We’re pretty proud of it.”

Riverview is open to anyone in the county and also has residents from other areas, some of whom are family members of local residents who came there to be close to family, she said. The are 120 residents at the home.

In addition to the nursing home, Riverview offers temporary rehabilitation services, a day program and veterans programs, German said.

The building was constructed in the mid-1960s, and additions were made in the late ‘90s, she said.

The facility has received a five-star rating from Medicare since 2010, and U.S. News and World Report has put it on its “Best Nursing Homes” list in 2011, 2012 and 2013.